


Whisperer in the Dark

by ElderGodsAnonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura-centric, Angst, Blood and Injury, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mind Control, Psychological Horror, Self-Mutilation, cosmic horror, no one dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-05 19:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElderGodsAnonymous/pseuds/ElderGodsAnonymous
Summary: On a routine scouting mission to an unknown planet, something goes wrong. Now Hunk, Lance, and Pidge are missing. All Allura and Keith have to go on is their last location, and the odd things the paladins said just before the coms cut out.There's a doorway in the mountain.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge left vargas ago.

It's not unusual for recon missions to go long, especially in portions of the universe that aren't well mapped. There aren't any major signs of civilization: no artificial satellites, no transmissions, no visible cities.

But Coran insists he detected odd readings on the planet below them. It's a vast, terrestrial planet with no moons, orbiting a dim carbon star. The planet is covered in dark, untamed forests and freezing mountains, broken up by metallic oceans so still they could almost be glass.

No one was excited to go down to the planet, least of all Hunk, but Keith was still recovering from their last mission. The Black Lion took too big a hit, and both Keith and his lion were down for the count for several days. While his gut wound had healed, the weakness and effects of rapid healing lingered. Allura opted to give Lance an opportunity to take the lead on this diplomatic mission, assuming there was any intelligent life below to connect with. 

She sits with Keith, listening to the chatter from the coms while Coran makes repairs on the Black Lion. Red and Yellow are still in their hangars, everyone having taken Green down to the surface. It takes the ground team quite some time to investigate the area, but Allura and Keith have tea, which helps alleviate the waiting a little. In the meantime, Allura pours over diplomatic treaties, information from the Blades, and important intel. It’s all stuff she hasn’t quite gotten around to, with their busy schedule. She’s enjoying the downtime, if she’s being completely honest.

Slowly, the coms chatter dies down a bit. Nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary, especially if there's no signs of civilization, like they'd suspected. Lance and Hunk still make comments back and forth, and Pidge relays a steady stream of data from their scanners. The background noise feels soothing and friendly.

Allura only half-listens to all of it, as she goes through her datapad. Keith’s watching the video feed and keeping an eye out for anything unusual. It’s all completely routine.

Except. Except.

" _Hey, there's a door in the mountain_ ," says Pidge.

Allura frowns, tracking their location to the base of one of the mountain ranges where the strange readings emanated. She can't see anything bizarre about their position. It just looks like trees and rock and the barest hint of snow. Allura looks over to Pidge’s video feed, where the mountains rise out of the forests. A huge tunnel is carved into the stone. There’s no signs of life, aside from the tunnel that descends down into the mountain. No writing or carvings, no signs, just a smooth, featureless tunnel.

" _Not really a door, kind of like an archway. Definitely doesn't look natural,_ " Hunk says. There's a pause. _"This is definitely it, right? I feel like it is._ "

There's something odd about his phrasing in that last statement, but Allura brushes it off as one of those occasional translator glitches. They aren't as common as they used to be, when they first had to calibrate to the human language, but they still happen from time to time.

Keith presses his fingers to the coms. "Be careful, guys, we don't know what's causing these readings, and if you go in, there could be interference in the coms. If it cuts out, just come back out and tell us, okay?"

 _"Copy that, Black Leader,_ " Lance says, and Keith's lips twitch upward. _"Mission is a go. Go. In._ "

Allura leans back in her seat, pushing the tea over to Keith. "Might as well get comfortable, right?"

"Hopefully it doesn't take long," Keith says. There are dark shadows under his eyes, and he stifles a yawn as he pulls up Lance’s video feed. Still, he takes the tea with a grateful smile.

She looks at him a bit closer, but he just stares at the screen where the dark world turns. The ruby-red light from the carbon star sinks everything in deep red shadows, darkening the surface until it all looks the same. Vast forests, vast mountains, vast oceans, all dark and still.

The chatter over the coms goes quiet, but Allura can still hear Lance commenting on the tunnel they're in. At least, for a bit. The video feed starts to break up, the signal strong enough for audio but not for video.

Then they go silent. Keith frowns, pulling up everyone’s video feeds and projecting them onto the main screen, but they’re blurry and filled with static. Allura can make out that they’re still in the tunnel, but that’s it.

About fifteen doboshes later, Pidge's voice comes through the coms. " _Found_ _a stairwell, sort of._ "

Keith squints at the screen. On Pidge’s screen, there’s a stairway barely visible through the interference. More dark stone, but the steps are narrow and spiral downward. It’s impossible to tell how far down the steps go.

" _Good, we’re getting there_ _,_ " Lance says. “ _We’re closer now. This is good.”_

"Closer to what?" Keith asks.

Lance doesn't answer, but Pidge does. _"To the end, right? It's down here. We can find it."_

Allura looks at Keith. "Is this a translation issue? All the phrasing seems off."

Keith scowls. "It's not the translator. They sound weird. Hey, guys, call it off. Forget it. Just come back out and we'll try again later. I don't like this."

Hunk's laughter echoes through the coms, and something about it makes the hair raise on the back of Allura's neck. " _Nah, it's fine. It's not that bad, really. Look, if we don't find something soon, we'll come out. But this is good. This is really good._ "

"No," Allura says, putting as much command into her voice as possible. "Paladins, leave the cavern immediately and return to the castle. Either there's something wrong with the coms, or there's some sort of influence in the area that I can't detect."

No one answers. The stillness settles on Allura’s skin like frost. The video feed disintegrates into static, undecipherable.

Keith pushes himself to his feet. "Something's wrong.”

Allura gives him a look. “Keith, sit down before you pass out again. You’re hardly well enough to be up and about just yet.”

He looks like he’s going to ignore her for a minute, but seems to think better of it and sits back down with a huff. He winces and presses his hand to his abdomen.

“Let’s just give them a bit longer, then if they don’t answer, I’ll go down and find them,” Allura says. “We can be careful about it.”

Less than a dobash later, a strange sound echoes through the coms, like something crunching, before the sound cuts out.

“Paladins?” Allura calls. Static echoes through the line, muffled voices just behind it. Allura adjusts the settings, trying to get the signal back. 

She gets one last line.

“ _Meet us there_ ,” Pidge says, though her voice is distant from the static. “ _We’ll wait for you at the end. It’s going to be okay._ ”

“What the fuck,” Keith says, struggling to stand again. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Paladins, please, return to the Green Lion immediately,” Allura says. “Do not go deeper. Please return!”

The coms are dead. Allura curses, trying to fix the signal, but there’s nothing left to fix, not even static remains. The signal’s just gone. She tries to pull up the tracking signals for the paladin suits, but those aren't showing up, either. 

“All right, let’s go,” Keith says.

“No,” Allura replies. “I don’t know what that was, but it seems like it was affecting their minds. If that’s the case, we can’t risk you as well.”

“So, what, you’re going down by yourself?” Keith asks. “What if it affects you too?”

Allura shakes her head. “Alteans have a natural resistance to that sort of thing. It’s in our quintessence. Part of our chameleon tendencies.”

Keith hesitates, looking at the planet. “I don’t like this.”

Allura’s brow furrows. “I don’t either, to be candid. Something that could affect their minds like this must be powerful. It’s a completely unknown situation.”

Allura calls Coran to the bridge and fills him in on the situation. She needs someone constantly monitoring the planet, and Coran jumps into the job with his characteristic energy.

“Princess, we need a plan in case you are also compromised,” Coran tells her, his tone brooking no argument. “There simply is no way we can take a risk on this.”

Keith nods. “Absolutely. We can’t have the entire team disappear.”

She sighs. “And how do you propose we protect ourselves?”

Coran brings up the cameras in the hangar. Aside from the still form of the Black Lion, all the Lions are out of position. Yellow and Blue are pacing in agitated circles, and Red has one paw against the hangar door, and is staring at the camera.

“Green has also moved from her position, and is now closer to the paladins’ last location than she was previously,” Coran reports. “It seems as though they’re reacting to a threat to the others.”

“So we take them all down,” Keith says. “I can go in Red.”

“Absolutely not, you are still recovering,” Allura tells him. “It’s far too dangerous.”

He presses his lips together. “I’m not letting you go down by yourself, Princess, that’s just not happening,” he says. “I’ll stay in Red the entire time, but we need someone to act as a communication relay. And what if someone’s injured? We’ll need someone to take them back to the castle.”

They’re excellent points, and Allura can’t argue with them. She doesn’t like exposing Keith to the same thing the other humans were vulnerable to, but if anything happens to him, she supposes Red will know and keep him from entering the mountain.

“Very well,” she says.

“We can use the cable lines to hook you to Blue, so that if something goes wrong, you have an escape route,” Coran adds. “Benefit of that particular strategy is that it integrates with your helmet and suit, so that we can stay in continuous contact and keep an eye on your vital signs.”

Keith blinks. “I didn’t know we could do that,” he says.

“It’s older tech, and it’s mostly outdated for the vast majority of operations,” replies Coran, tugging on his mustache. “Typically, there’s no need for it except for rescue situations. I suppose this qualifies.”

“Yes, well, let’s not waste any more time,” Allura says. “To the Lions, then.”

Allura changes into her armor as quickly as she can before meeting Keith outside the hangars. When they enter, Red bounds over and immediately scoops Keith into her mouth. Allura hears Keith’s muffled protests, and stifles a laugh. Blue isn’t much better, and a sense of _danger to other paladins terrible danger injured hurt something vile_ presses against Allura’s mind.

They launch, and Yellow is right on their heels, an odd presence without Hunk’s voice in the coms.

It seems as though there isn’t any complex life at all aside from the plants and some smaller life-forms. Allura doesn’t know what could have caused the other paladins to act like this, but there’s a sick feeling in her stomach she can’t stand. Everything is so dark, and soaked in red light.

They don’t have to travel far to find the doorway. They’re locked onto Green’s location, and sure enough, Green is right beside it. It’s several meters high, carved deep into the stone of the mountain. Yellow lands beside Green, and they both start to pace nearby, distressed in a way Allura’s never seen before.

So is Allura, to be perfectly honest. She feels like if she goes into that mountain, she might never come back. The quintessence of this place feels wrong in a way she can’t quite pinpoint, like trying to see something dark that’s deep underwater.

“ _I don’t like this_ ,” Keith says over the coms. _“I have a bad feeling. Like something doesn’t want us here._ ”

Allura sets her shoulders. “Well, whatever it is, it can just deal with it. We aren’t leaving without our friends.”

“ _Damn right_ ,” says Keith with a huff. “ _Hook up to Blue, let’s test this connection._ ”

Blue lets her out of the cockpit, and lies down on the dark earth. The connection point is right under Blue’s neck, and the cable connects to a port above Allura’s hip. It feels secure enough, and Allura gives it a few good tugs just to be sure. She considers taking the speeder, but decides against it. If the speeder stops working like the trackers did, then getting it back might be a problem. She's going on foot, whether she likes it or not.

She looks up at Red, and can see Keith through the lion’s eyes. “We’re good to go, I think.”

There’s a pause, and Coran’s voice crackles to life in her ears. “ _Indeed, both audio and video feeds are clear and strong. Princess,_ _please_ _be careful._ ”

“ _Bring them back_ ,” Keith tells her.

Allura nods to Red. Green and Yellow watch her pass, each giving her a soothing rumble. She crosses through the doorway, and descends into the mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always welcome feedback and critiques, especially relating to character consistency. This is the first horror story I've written in ages, so I hope the atmosphere feels organic. This is set approximately somewhere during season three before Shiro shows up. There should be about five chapters for this fic.
> 
> EDIT: I realized I posted the unedited version of this chapter instead of the finished one. That's a class move, right there.


	2. Chapter 2

Under the rock and earth, there’s a stillness to the air that leaves a knot in the pit of Allura’s stomach. The tunnel feels like it saps all sound and movement. Allura can barely hear her own footsteps.

Despite the unnerving silence, the tunnel doesn’t look like anything special. It’s nothing but smooth stone. Allura has no idea how it came to exist, but it’s certainly the kind of thing made on purpose, not by accident. It’s just small enough to prevent any ship from getting in, but as Allura looks forward, she can see that the walls slowly narrow.

The deeper she travels, the more she’s becoming aware of... something. She can’t put a name to it, can barely even describe what it feels like. It’s more of a presence than anything, like something watching her from far away.

It’s eerie, but it doesn’t touch her. Allura wonders if it even can, or if the humans are just more susceptible to it. So many things exist in the universe, and her father never got to pass down all of his knowledge. His AI helped, but... well. Some knowledge might be lost forever.

It takes some time to get to the end of the tunnel, where the stairs begin. Here, the tunnel is only wide enough for two or three people. She can barely see anything past the pressing dark, even with her helmet lights on their brightest setting.

“I found the stairs,” she reports, if only to hear the voices of Keith and Coran.

“ _Be careful, those look quite precarious,”_ Coran says. _“Stay cautious. You can’t help the others if you get injured yourself.”_

She keeps one hand on the stone wall as she starts down the stairs. They spiral down, down, a dizzying distance. It takes forever, and with the steady presence in the distance, it puts every nerve on edge. Allura can’t help but be frusterated by how much _time_ it takes to get anywhere in this place. The paladins could be hurt, they could be in terrible danger, and she just can’t get to them fast enough.

Allura is what she hopes is halfway down when she hears it. It’s a low, rasping sound, followed by a pause, then a scrape. It’s not anything nearby, it’s directly in her ears.

“Keith? Coran? Do you hear that?” she asks, her voice pitching higher than she intended.

There’s a pause before Keith speaks. _“I didn’t hear anything. What’s it sound like?”_

The sound repeats. Rasping, almost like someone breathing, then a long, slow scraping noise.

“There! Did you hear that?”

“ _Negative, Princess, I didn’t hear anything. Where is it coming from?”_

She pauses, then listens for the noise. When it happens again, she gasps.

The sound is coming from the _coms_. She’s hearing something from one of the paladins.

Someone’s nearby, but that sound indicates nothing pleasant.

“I think I’m picking up something from one of the paladins, one of them must be close,” she reports.

“ _Keep us updated, let us know what you find_.”

Keith’s voice cuts out, and she’s left in the dark with that rasp-scrape echoing through her ears.

“Hello?” she calls, aiming the light downward. Far at the bottom, she can see a heavy streak of something dark leading deeper into the mountain. Her stomach twists.

It takes too long to navigate the spiraling stone stairway. As she gets to the bottom, she eyes the dark splatter on the ground, and the trail leading into the next tunnel.

“Paladins?” she calls.

She shines her light down at the stone and gasps. It’s human blood, too red to be anything else, and it glistens in the light. Fresh blood.

Allura looks down the tunnel. The stone’s been smoothed down, presumably by hand. The floor is just as smooth, though from years of use rather than on purpose. She doesn’t know who’s been using this tunnel, but it doesn’t feel right to her.

Then, she spots something further down the tunnel. Dim teal lights, just like on the paladin armor.

Allura dashes down the hall, avoiding the slick trail of blood. She sees the red panels of Lance’s suit, but also the way blood coats his legs. Why is Lance moving? Why wouldn’t he try to get to safety?

“Lance, what happened?” she asks, falling to her knees beside him.

He doesn’t respond. His eyes are fixed forward, as though his only goal is to go deeper into the mountain. His armor is cracked in multiple places, most of the damage concetrated around his legs. On his left lower leg, something white juts out from his skin and oozes slow but steady. Every so often, Lance reaches out and slides forward, his broken breastplate scraping against the stone.

Blood trickles out of the corner of his mouth.

Through the coms, she hears Keith swear. _“Get him back here, fast.”_

“Lance?” she asks. Allura puts her hands on either side of his helmet and turns his face away from the tunnel to look at her. “Lance, what happened?”

His eyes are glazed over, and he tries to turn his head back, but she hold him in place. He blinks several times, and his breathing is labored and agonizing to hear. “Allura?” he asks. He sounds as though he’s trying to pry the name from somewhere deep in his memory, as though she’s a friend he’d forgotten decades ago. “What are you doing here?”

“We have to get you back to the Castle,” she tells him. “You’re badly hurt. I’m going to have to carry you, okay?”

He shakes his head. “No. I have to get to the end. I need to.” One of his hands stretches out, trying to pull himself further down the hall. When he moves his left leg forward to keep crawling, the exposed bone catches on the stone. Lance doesn’t even flinch.

Keith starts swearing again in her ears as Allura gathers Lance into her arms to keep him from injuring himself any further. Lance makes a hideous sound in the back of his throat, like a feral animal. He only meets Allura’s eyes when she prevents him from looking down the tunnel once again.

Allura closes her eyes for just a moment, then meets his gaze with all the regal authority she possesses. “Lance, I am carrying you out of here. You are _hurt_. Red waits for you. Keith as well. Do you understand?”

Lance’s eyes drift toward the hall, and he shudders, but doesn’t respond. She’s not sure if he’s even able to. She hopes, prays, that this reverses when they get off the planet.

As Allura lifts Lance up, he struggles against her grasp, but his movements are weak from bloodloss. He doesn’t seem to feel any pain or fear at all. She moves quickly, not wanting to hurt Lance, but also terrified for Hunk and Pidge.

He hisses at her, writhing the further away she carries him. Allura doesn’t want to drop him, but at the same time, she’s afraid she’ll hurt him further if she holds him too tightly. Lance is already so weak. She can hear Lance’s coms start to fill with static, like the interference is lifting.

“ _Allura, are you on your way up?”_ Keith asks.

“I’m here, I’m coming up the stairs now,” she says.

Lance’s fingers are digging into her arms, as though he’s given up on trying to break free but he’s making his protest known. He doesn’t respond to Keith, and that glazed look hasn’t left his eyes.

“Both his legs are broken and he’s not in his right mind. He keeps trying to get away from me. You were right, there’s something terrible in this mountain,” Allura reports. “Something was compelling him to crawl deeper into the tunnels. It’s powerful, but it doesn’t affect me, it seems.”

“ _I’m moving to the medbay to prep a pod, I’ll be out of contact for just a dobosh or two,”_ Coran says.

Allura can’t move very quickly up the stairs, as any time she tries to go faster, Lance tries to writhe away. With the stairs as steep as they are, she’s terrified he’ll fall and suffer even worse harm. She suspects falling is what injured him in the first place. It’s easy once she gets into the entryway, and she can see the lions waiting for her just outside.

Finally, she exits the mountain, and Red and Blue are there, staring down at the two of them with fierce intensity. Red lowers down and opens her mouth to let Allura inside.

Keith hisses at the sight of Lance, and his face pales at the broken bone sticking out of Lance’s leg. “Shit, shit,” he mutters as Allura carefully sets Lance down. “Okay, I’ll get him back to the castle, you go back and get Hunk and Pidge.”

Lance struggles again, a low hiss coming from his throat. “No, I need to go back! You have to let me! I don’t want to be alone!”

Keith grabs Lance’s hand and squeezes it. “You’re not alone, Lance, I promise. We’re going home, to the castle, okay? I’ll be with you the whole time, then Coran will be with you.”

Lance shakes his head, and Allura knows he’s talking about something else.

“ _All right, medbay is ready for Lance,”_ Coran says.

Keith takes a deep breath. “How are you doing, Allura? You okay for another trip?”

She looks down at Lance. “I’m as well as can be expected. I suppose whatever this presence is, it has little interest in you and me.”

“Thank fuck for small favors,” Keith says, still holding Lance’s hand. “I’ll see you for the next trip, then. Be safe. We’re with you.”

She nods, and leaves Red. Once she’s clear, Blue nudges her gently with a paw, sending _thankful and grateful and you-are-so-brave_ to her, washing away the unease. She presses a hand to Blue’s nose, to center herself, then heads back into the mountain as Red launches from the planet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is almost done. Should you like this fic, I would suggest VelkynKarma's fics [Phantasmagoria](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10059878) and [Pillar in the Dark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019435). Also, [hound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11618481/chapters/26122158) by story_monger is also really goddamn good. Space horror is my jam, y'all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's officially October, so have more spooky Voltron fic!

The stairs are before her once again, and something foreboding settles in the base of her spine.

She passes the end of the trail of blood, and pushes the thought of it out of her mind. Lance must have fallen down the stairs and hurt himself, but was still under the influence of... something. 

Whatever this monster is, it doesn’t affect Allura. She can feel its presence, but it doesn’t try to touch her mind. It watches, constantly, like eyes boring into her soul.

She will  _not_ be intimidated. She is the Princess of Altea. She is one of the last of her kind. She is the Blue Paladin, and she is the commander of the Castle of Lions. Her paladins are in danger. If anyone should be afraid, it is the thing that dares encroach on the only family she has left.

But the tunnels are long, silent, and dark. Even knowing she could call out and hear Keith and Coran at any given moment, it presses on her, thick and stifling. With that is the knowledge that maybe, maybe, she’s already too late. Lance was only nearby because he’d been hurt. Hunk and Pidge could already be at the mercy of whatever beast is at the end of these tunnels.

That thought spurs her on faster.

Past the end of the tunnel she’d found Lance in, the hall narrows and starts to twist and turn. Soon it feels as though she’s walking through the winding burrows of something too large. The presence watching her presses against her mind from time to time, as though testing the boundaries of her will.

“I think this thing is agitated,” she says into the coms. She knows the two of them are busy with Lance, but she needs to say something to cut through the unbearable silence. “It feels as though it’s testing my abilities.”

There’s a long pause before someone answers.  _“Should you feel anything unusual, you can instantly recall yourself by pressing the button at the base of the cable,”_ Coran tells her. Allura finds it, but doesn’t press it. It takes far too long to make it this deep into the mountain. She doesn’t want to have to start all over again because of an accident.

“ _And if you start acting like the others, we’ll tell Blue to recall you anyways,”_ Keith says.

In the background, she can hear Lance making that same hissing noise he did when she carried him. “Is Lance all right?” she asks.

Coran hums into the com.  _“We have to set the bones before we put him in a pod, and he’s fighting us. Don’t worry about him right now, you focus on finding the others.”_

“Very well, I leave you to it,” Allura says.

Talking to the others helps, but she can still feel the presence there. She doesn’t dare try stretching out her own mind. Her father taught Allura how to defend her own mind, but he also taught her that there are things out in the cold universe who are very dangerous to interact with in that manner.

This presence most likely is one of them.

She’s not sure how long she weaves her way through the twisting corridors, but eventually her ears fill with static. Not from her own coms, she can tell that much, which leaves either Hunk or Pidge somewhere ahead of her. 

Allura walks faster.

It’s a few minutes later that she hears Hunk through the static in her coms. Panic threads through his voice, so powerfully that it pains Allura to hear it. He’s speaking so quickly that the translator can barely keep up with it. 

“- _please, find me, find us, I tried going back but I can’t, can’t even turn around, Keith, Coran, Allura, I’m so fucking scared-_ ”

Allura gasps. “Hunk!”

“ _Oh, thank god, Princess, I’m so happy to hear your voice_ ,” Hunk says, his voice thick. He takes several deep breaths, and she can almost feel him wrestling with his anxiety. “ _Did you find Lance?_ ”

“Yes, yes, I found Lance, Keith took him back to the Castle,” Allura says, moving faster down the twisting halls. “He’ll be okay, Coran’s prepping a pod for him right now. He might be in a pod already.”

She feels like she’s rambling, but she could hear the distress in Hunk’s voice. He lets out a nervous laugh that turns into half a sob, like he knows what she’s doing. “ _Yeah, that’s good. I... I tried to turn back, but I couldn’t. I can’t go anywhere, I can’t move, every time I try walking I just go further down the tunnel, I can’t even look away-_ ”

“It’s okay, I’m coming your way, you’re all right,” Allura tells him, picking up her pace.

“ _You hear Hunk? He’s talking to you?_ ” Keith asks. He sounds out of breath, as though he’s been running.

Allura doesn’t know why they still can’t hear him if she’s close enough to pick up on his signal, but it doesn’t matter. She just needs to get to Hunk as soon as possible.

“Yes, he’s somewhere ahead of me, he’s coherent,” Allura reports.

There’s a pause, and Hunk speaks up again.  _“Who are you talking to?”_

“I’ve got a direct like to Keith and Coran, so they stay in contact with me,” Allura explains. “Just in case something went wrong.”

Hunk makes hissing sound.  _“Good idea. I... I’ve been in and out, I think. It’s so hard to focus.”_

She pauses for just a tick before rushing forward again. “Hunk, are you injured?”

“ _Yeah, my leg’s bleeding. And my hand hurts. I can’t move, but that’s not because of my leg. Every time I stand up I have to walk forward. I have to. It hurts to just sit here, but I don’t want to find out what’s really at the end, I know it’s not what it says it is.”_

That disturbs Allura. If the presence is able to speak directly into their minds and influence them from a great distance, it must be incredibly powerful. She feels fear crawling up her back, but she grits her teeth against it. She will not be intimidated. She will  _not_ .

“Hunk is injured,” Allura reports. “He can’t walk unless he moves forward, so he’s staying put.”

“ _Good, that’s good,”_ Keith says. _“I’m getting back in Red right now. Coran’s in the medbay with Lance, but he’s set it up so he can see what we’re doing.”_

Allura takes a deep breath. “Hunk, I need you to describe to me what’s been going on, can you do that for me?”

“ _I... maybe? I remember we found the door. And, and it felt right to go inside. Like, it felt like that’s where we’d always been going. Like it’s why we were here. And when we were going down the stairs, Lance slipped, I think. He’s okay, right? You said he’s okay.”_

Allura’s hands clench into fists. He sounds so  _young_ . 

“He’s getting in a pod right now, Hunk, Red’s already on her way back now. Keith will be waiting for us when we get out, all right?” she says, keeping her voice as steady as possible. “So everything’s just fine. I’m getting closer to you, I think. Can you hold on?”

“ _Yes, yeah, I can,”_ says Hunk. He takes several more deep breaths. _“Can you keep talking to me? I was talking so I couldn’t hear it in my head. It helps if there’s noise. Maybe that’s why it’s so quiet down here.”_

“Of course, Hunk, of course I will. Keith and Coran are terribly worried about you all,” Allura says. “Keith almost charged in here himself! And when he can barely stand.”

Hunk lets out a breath.  _“Is he okay? If he was on the planet, didn’t he feel it?”_

“No, he didn’t feel it,” Allura says. “But I can definitely sense it. It’s been watching me the entire time. It can’t touch me, though. Alteans have a resistance to these things.”

“ _Like how you’re a chameleon?”_

“Yes, exactly, like how I shapeshift. Difficult to latch onto a mind like that,” Allura says.

Keith lets out a breath.  _“Wait, I heard him! He must be close!”_

“I’m close to you, Hunk, just a little bit longer!” Allura breaks into a run, and after two more turns, she sees Hunk’s teal indicator lights just a few meters away.

Hunk’s vision is focused down the tunnel, where it bends once again. He tries to move his head to look at Allura, but can’t seem to manage it. His right hand is pressed to a deep black gouge running down his right thigh and the other is bracing against the wall, like he’s holding himself there. The gauntlet on his left hand looks cracked and charred. Allura kneels down in front of him so he can see her, and he lets out a sigh of relief. There are tear tracks running down his cheeks and Allura reaches out to wipe them away.

“Lance is okay?” he asks. 

She nods. “Yes, he’s safe. He’ll be just fine. What happened to your leg?”

“I shot myself,” he says in a high voice. “I had to. It kept making me walk further and further. I didn’t want to, so I shot myself. My bayard _hurts_ , I didn’t even know. Kinda feel bad for the Galra, a little.”

“It’s okay, it’s not too deep,” Allura tells him, though she can’t really tell in the darkness of the tunnel. “I’m going to carry you out. Just like I did with Lance.”

Hunk shakes his head, jaw muscles clenching. His right hand clenches at the wound on his leg, and blood drips down his armor. “No, no, you gotta get Pidge, you gotta, I couldn’t shoot her, I couldn’t do that to her, and I grabbed her, but she attacked me and kept going. You’ve gotta get to her,  _please_ .”

Allura takes a deep breath, thinking. The wound in Hunk’s leg doesn’t look good at all. The wound is cauterized around the edges, but blood drips steadily onto the stone, and she feels like he probably did more damage than he can feel while running on pure panic alone. Hunk’s entire frame is shaking, but whether from pain or straining against the alien influence, Allura can’t tell.

Coran must be thinking the same thing she is, because his voice comes over the coms a tick later.  _“No, that wound must be treated as soon as possible, I’m afraid. He might be compensating now, but his bayard is very dangerous. His condition could deteriorate at any moment.”_

“ _Yeah, bring him out as fast as possible,_ ” Keith says. _“I just arrived in Red.”_

“Hunk, we have to get you back to the castle and into a pod,” says Allura carefully. “I will come back for Pidge, I swear to you, but you are badly hurt. I fear we don’t have time to waste.”

More tears spill down Hunk’s cheeks, and she gently wipes them away. He shakes his head again but she gets him to look her in the eyes. “I swear to you, as the last soverign of Altea, I will not leave Pidge behind.”

He finally nods, and Allura gathers him into her arms. He laughs a little at that, panicked though it is. “I keep forgetting you have super strength,” he says, wrapping his good arm around her neck for balance.

“I know, you humans have such noodly arms compared to me,” Allura tells him, forcing a smile onto her face. 

“I’m really glad you’re immune to this,” says Hunk, after several doboshes or so of walking. “My head hurts so bad.”

“What are you feeling, exactly? Lance wasn’t at all coherent.”

Hunk is quiet for a moment. “Like... like there’s someone in my head, and it feels like they’re supposed to be there, like it’s  _right_ , but at the same time it’s terrible and it hurts when I try and fight it,” he says, voice quavering toward the end. He sniffs. “I almost want to fight you, because it’s telling me I have to go down the tunnel. It’s so important. I don’t know what’s down there, it tells me it’s more important than  _anything_ , but I know it’s lying to me. It made me leave Lance behind. I wouldn’t ever leave him behind, never, but it made me keep walking and I couldn’t turn around-”

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Allura says, in a low hum. “It’s okay. Keith’s waiting for us up top.”

“And... if we leave, it’ll get out of my head?” Hunk asks, shuddering in her grasp. She knows now he’s struggling against the compulsion to fight his way out of her arms.

She doesn’t know how to answer that. She doesn’t know if she should lie, or tell him the truth: that she doesn’t know what will happen. She hopes it’s not permanent. None of them deserve this.

“I don’t know,” she finally says, and they’re at the staircase now. Thankfully, Hunk is angled so he can’t see the long smear of blood left behind by Lance. Small favors, as Keith said.

“Okay,” Hunk whispers. “Okay.”

Halfway up, she hears Hunk’s coms fizzle back to life.

“Keith, we’re almost there,” she says.

“ _Oh, thank fuck, this mountain gets creepier the longer I have to sit here,”_ Keith says.

Hunk laughs, and it sounds a little better, less brittle. “Yeah, please get me out of here.”

“ _Hunk, you’re with us?”_ Keith asks.

“Yeah, kinda shot myself in the leg to keep it out of my head, which I now realize might be a really bad idea,” Hunk tells him. “And my hand hurts? I don’t remember that part. Buddy, how are you not going crazy like the rest of us?”

“ _Maybe my alien half is helping me out,”_ Keith says. It’s as good a theory as any. _“Coran already put Lance in a pod, he’ll be just fine.”_

Allura finally exits the mountain. Yellow lowers his head just over Hunk, letting out a soothing rumble.

“Thanks, boy,” Hunk says, closing his eyes. The crimson light casts the disturbing illusion that he’s covered in blood.

Red’s mouth opens, and Keith is there to help get Hunk inside. Keith clasps Hunk’s good hand, and gently taps their helmets together. “That was really smart, Hunk, you did such a great job,” Keith tells him. “Coran has a pod ready with your name on it, bud.”

“Get Pidge,” Hunk says, relief and anxiety etched in equal measures into his voice. “I couldn’t reach her. I tried, I really did.”

Allura shushes him, keeping her voice as soothing as possible. “I know, I know. It’s okay.”

She sets him down in Red’s cockpit, right by Keith’s chair. In the light, she can see the massive gaping wound in Hunk’s thigh clearly, and knows he needs to get back  _now_ . His eyes are glazed over too, but less than Lance’s were. His face is ashen, and Allura can see that he’s bitten through his lip, probably from the strain of ignoring the presence.

Allura meets Keith’s eyes. It’s clear they’re of the same mind. “Fly fast. I’m going back for Pidge.”

“I’m coming back,” Keith tells her, and there’s no doubt in her mind that he will. “We’re not leaving without everyone.”

“Thank you,” Allura says. She turns, leaves Red, and for the last time, walks into the mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had the first three chapters mostly written when I first posted this fic, but chapter four is not as done as the others were, so it might take a few more days to finish up. As always, I greatly appreciate any and all feedback you have for me.


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